Global Tea Hut, The Leaf Magazine ... 2014 forward ...

Wu De who many of us know as the TeawareArtisan on TeaChat is also committed to Global Tea Hut and The Leaf Magazine. He has asked me to post some information regarding some changes beginning this year which I have quoted below.

I am placing this here versus the Tea Magazine topic partly because it is more than simply a magazine project as they also represent a real presence in Taiwan where readers and visitors are welcome to visit and learn of the tea culture of Taiwan ... I felt a dedicated topic would be most beneficial to members and Global Tea Hut projects.

Wu De wrote:This year Global Tea Hut is shifting from a community newsletter to a professional tea magazine, and one that comes every month with organic tea! The magazine describes the tea, and is packed full of tea wisdom.

Furthermore, all proceeds support our non-profit organization, which is dedicated to building free tea centers that our readers can visit. This represents a new kind of media in the world—one in which the media constructs real space, and the reader can travel from magazine to center and then back to the magazine.

In this way, we build community together. Many of you are familiar with The Leaf Magazine. This new Global Tea Hut will be the continuation of that. We will never include advertising of any kind.

Here are our incentives as membership increases (we currently have around 260 members worldwide):

•At 500 members we will switch to a full-color magazine•At 1000 members we will begin traveling to tea regions, writing more journalistic articles and sourcing more organic tea. This also allows us to start connecting sustainable farmers to each other so that Global Tea Hut itself can have an impact on the tea world.•At 1500 members we will start translating modern and ancient tea texts to English.

So if I follow, I subscribe at the link above with an annual fee of anything I want between $20 and $500. You use that income to finance both a (B&W) print magazine and a physical tea-place. I get a monthly issue of this magazine, plus a tea sample for this donation.

That's about right, but the subscription donations are monthly not annually. Most of the teas are donated as well, making Global Tea Hut a big gift exchange! Also, the teas are 100% organic. We are exclusively committed to sustainable tea production!

As membership increases, the magazine will go full-color. It is looking as if that shift will already be happening by March of 2014! At 1000 members, we will also start traveling, both to gather more and varied teas, and also to write/research more (and further afield) articles on tea-growing regions, farmers, teaware artisans, etc.

Also, all the previous issues are available in color online at http://www.globalteahut.org for free, so you don't even have to join in order to read them!

As for our center: currently in Miao Li Taiwan, we host anywhere between 300-500 visitors a year from over 30 countries around the world. They come to study Cha Dao, tea and meditation. All room and board, classes and tea are free!

We hope to also have a smaller center hosting daily tea ceremonies, but without room and board, opening in LA very soon. You can read more at: http://www.teasagehut.org or come and visit us if you find yourself Eastward bound!

For us it is all about community and connection. There is something deep and spiritual in sharing the same tea together around the world, especially if we all commit to doing so in the spirit of community. There are currently Global Tea Hut members in almost 30 countries sharing these teas together every month! In other words, it is not our aim to sell these teas, but rather to drink them together--even if it be from a distance!

We already feel abundant, and Global Tea Hut is a way of sharing our center with more and more people around the world--even those who cannot or will not ever come here. It is also a way of generating more energy to build a bigger, more permanent center on the land we were donated last year. (Our current center is in 2 rented buildings).

Our land has a waterfall, eagles and will, ultimately, have around 1000 tea trees as well--all seed-propagated and allowed to grow tall. We hope these will serve as an educational experience for future guests. They are non-commercial trees anyway.

After the center here is built, we then hope to build, improve and maintain other tea centers, starting first in LA and then perhaps Northern Europe where we have a strong community/support.

Last edited by Wu De on Jan 31st, '14, 02:09, edited 4 times in total.

We should also note that Global Tea Hut is entering its 26th month, so this project is not new. It is the desire to shift it from a more community-based newsletter to a professional magazine that can touch more tea lovers that is novel. (As mentioned above, previous issues are available for free at our site.)

And all throughout this change we hope to maintain a lot of the personal, community touches that make Global Tea Hut special. Perhaps most importantly to us, we will also continue to present articles from a perspective of environmental integrity as well as spiritual cultivation, along with any articles on the more linear aspects of tea, like production, history, preparation, etc. This personal voice as well as the deeper approach underlying the magazine are, after all, what distinguishes us from other tea publications.

Yes, I got a lof of sympathy for what you are doing and I have been able to learn so much already from your free publications. Since I'm a student, I don't have the money to participate constantly yet.To be honest, I was a little surprised seeing in your video that you are planning to go from 200 members to 2000 in just a year. That is ambitious indeed! I hope this is not too much for now.

Whats certain is that the world is connecting faster and faster, and its very important to create a feeling of community around the globe to keep in track with the technological and economical ties that are intensifying every day. Theres is a lot of different groups, all 'progressively spiritual' in their own ways, which try (mostly successfully, I think) to contribute to that, and its great to see that you're forming such a group which includes tea and tea culture. I'm thrilled to see how this will develop!

Also, your initiatives to promote ecological farming seem very encouraging. It would be so great to have a source of tea which has been produced entirely in a sustainable way, meaning not only pesticide-free, but also with fair payment for the producers, and especially the workers. You'd be doing the tea world a great favor in aiding that cause. Since I read about 'your' concept of living tea, I realized how satisfying it would be to have a source of tea which could provide for that.. aparently, now there is none.

Doing progressive spiritual work can be a dangerous thing, too often encouraged people end up founding sects which exclude other approaches. Your approach of giving things away for free is very encouraging and i think in a decade or two, people might think back how it all started with "the Leaf". Its great to have you guys around!